Special Classes

Speaking Tango 1 with Sharna Fabiano

Creative Development for Social Dancers

Designed as an intensive but intimate weekend event, Speaking Tango is a step-by-step process of synthesizing your own tango knowledge and experience into a system you can talk about and share in clear language. You’ll learn to observe, sense, and describe movement more precisely, give and receive empowering feedback, and guide learning for friends and students. Our time together combines dancing, short writing exercises, and “rehearsing” multiple ways of articulating tango movement with one another. We'll also analyze common stumbling blocks and postural conditions in tango dance and how to address or adapt to them. You’ll leave with a set of pedagogical and creative tools valuable both for self-directing your own study of tango and also for teaching tango to others.

"An incredibly powerful and important culmination of Sharna’s work and gifts as a tango dancer and teacher of teachers."-Aja Fenn, Washington, DC

“A fantastic framework for teachers and dancers to get to the very heart of why they dance, empowering them to explore and chart new avenues for personal growth and understanding. I loved the group discussions and activities. Sharing our experiences (both the sublime and the frustrating) felt deeply affirming and supportive, sparked numerous 'Eureka!' moments, and reinforced our sense of local and global community.”-Jackie Pham, Baltimore

1. Synthesize your own system of tango based on four essential skill areas

2. Learn how to give and receive feedback with peers in an empowering way

3. Develop both directive and feeling-based language for more effective teaching

MATERIALS: You will receive a set of worksheets for use throughout the weekend and to take home with you for reference. Please wear comfortable clothes and bring with you a notebook, pen, and flat or low-heeled dance shoes.

Speaking Tango Schedule in DC

About Sharna

Sharna has been involved with tango since 1997, when she received her first lesson in the corner of a dance hall from a fellow beginner. In addition to studying with such tango legends as the Pugliese family, Nito & Elba Garcia, Juan Bruno, "Tete" Rusconi, "Chicho" Frumboli, Omar Vega, and Pablo Veron, Sharna has also trained in an abundance of other movement modalities such as contact improvisation, yoga, Pilates, and Laban/Bartenieff Fundamentals.

Sharna performed as a member of the all-woman dance company TangoMujer between 2003-2006, and founded the nonprofit organization Tango Mercurio in Washington, D.C. in 2008. She completed an MFA in Dance at UCLA in 2014, where she studied performance theory, critical pedagogy, and choreographic methods. She is also a certified yoga instructor.

As a teacher, Sharna has the rare ability to both articulate and demonstrate, with precision, the subtle details of tango movement and improvisation. Her approach is holistic and exploratory, informed by both the anatomy and the poetry of the body.